According to the RIAA‘s 2019 mid-year report, released in early September, vinyl sales were responsible for generating $224.1 million in sales on 8.6 million units. In contrast, 18.6 million CDs were sold, with a total revenue of $247.9 million. It’s a premiere, because vinyl records sales are expected to take over CD sales for the first time since 1986.

Overall, net revenues from physical products bucked the recent trend in unit sales and grew 5% to $485 million in 1H 2019; however, this growth was the result of a reduction in physical product returns, and on a gross basis the revenues from physical product would have been down for the period. Vinyl albums grew 13% to $224 million, but still only accounted for 4% of total revenues in 1H 2019. Revenues from shipments of physical products made up 9% of the industry total for the period.

The purchase of vinyl has been steadily seeing an increase in popularity over the last decade. In February this year, DJ Mag‘s new research conducted alongside online record shop Norman Records uncovered that vinyl sales increased fivefold in the period from 2013 to the end of 2018.

Check the full RIAA’s report here.